Investigator, Lady Davis Institute
Director of Clinical Research in Heart Failure, Jewish General Hospital, Montreal
Dr. Richard Sheppard graduated from McGill University Medical School in 1996. He then undertook training in internal medicine and did a fellowship in cardiovascular medicine at McGill.
Dr. Sheppard pursued his interests in cardiology in Pittsburgh, where he completed a fellowship in congestive heart failure / pulmonary hypertension / cardiac transplantation at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center in 2002-2003. He then pursued his research at the Montreal Heart Institute, where he completed a fellowship in clinical research in congestive heart failure with Dr. Michel White.
Dr. Sheppard joined the Division of Cardiology at the Jewish General Hospital (JGH) as an Assistant Professor in Medicine at McGill University in 2004. He has since become the Director of Clinical Research in Heart Failure at the JGH. Dr. Sheppard is an active member of the Heart Failure Society of America and the Quebec Heart Failure Society, and continues to publish manuscripts and contribute to abstracts related to clinical heart failure studies.
He interacts with his colleagues at institutions, on the national and international levels, with a focus on clinical trials in heart failure. His major focus in clinical research has been in the area of acute decompensated heart failure (ADHF). He has involved both the LDI and the JGH in major clinical trials investigating both novel agents and novel technology aimed at treating ADHF.
He has an interest, as well, in the impact of genetic profiles on response to medical therapy in patients with acute and chronic heart failure. In addition, he continues to be involved in studies examining how genetic profiles of inflammatory markers influence the clinical course of diseases, such as peripartum cardiomyopathy and acute/recent onset non-ischemic cardiomyopathy.
As the Director of Clinical Research in Heart Failure at the JGH, Dr. Sheppard is the site primary investigator in a number of ongoing major international clinical trials.
Major Research Activities
Examining the impact of novel therapies on clinical outcomes in patients with acute and chronic heart failure. Examining the impact of genetic profiles on therapeutic response and clinical outcomes in patients with acute and chronic heart failure.
Recent Publications
R Sheppard and McNamara DM. “Pharamcogenetics”. Heart Failure: Pharmacologic management. Ed. Arthur Feldman. Wiley Blackwell, 2006: 236-249.
R Sheppard. “Vascular tone and the genomics of hypertension” Heart Fail Clin. 2010; 6: 45-53.